gorge

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A deep, narrow valley with steep, rocky sides, usually with a river running through it.

   We hiked along the edge of a deep gorge.

2. 2
   noun

   The throat or gullet.

   My gorge rises at the very thought of it.

Simplified etymology

Gorge was borrowed in Middle English from Old French gorge, “throat.” From that sense came the verb meaning to fill the throat with food and the noun for the stomach’s contents; the sense “narrow valley” developed in the mid-18th century from the image of a narrow throat.

From Middle English gorge (“esophagus, gullet; throat; bird's crop; food in a hawk's crop; food or drink that has been eaten”), a borrowing from Old French gorge (“throat”) (modern French gorge (“throat; breast”)), from Vulgar Latin *gorga, *gurga, from Latin gurges (“eddy, whirlpool; gulf; sea”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (“to devour, swallow; to eat”). The English word is cognate with Galician gorxa (“throat”), Italian gorga, gorgia (“gorge, ravine; (obsolete) throat”), Occitan gorga, gorja, Portuguese gorja (“gullet, throat; gorge”), Spanish gorja (“gullet, throat; gorge”).…

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